Steel Guardians
The Steel Guardians are a codex non-compliant and secessionist chapter in the 41st Millennium having cut their ties with the Imperium in late Millennium 39. History The Steel Guardians were founded near the time of 946.M37, for the purpose of replacing a chapter that had been destroyed, much more than this is unknown. Their primogeniture is unknown to them, lost to all but the very Astartes who originally were born to form their number. For the longest time, the chapter was consistently undermanned and understaffed until reforms were put into place by newer and more active commanders, eventually they reclaimed their world and formed their own domain to dwell upon An incident involving a corrupted inquisitor had resulted in their system being assailed by inquisitorial forces including Grey Knights, eventually his folley was realized and the Grey Knights helped the Steel Guardians beat back the traitor forces though the world of Intra was lost to an exterminatus. In a memoriam and a use for the world, the Steel Guardians converted Intra into a Charnel World, a single tall chapel standing to bless the great dead that rest in it's ground and tombs. In the modern 41st Millennium Imperium, they are an acting chapter at over-strength for their own benefit to defend their sector from whatever dangers may pose themselves in the End Times. Organisation The Steel Guardians are Non-Compliant to the organisational tenets of the Codex Astartes, using their own methods to serve their tactical doctrines. They hold more ranks than normal chapters for the purpose of greater refining their command and authorities with extra amounts of Astartes. Companies The Steel Guardians use different forms of companies, expanding them to 200 brothers making for 5 companies at standard strength. Each of these companies is divided into a Platoon of 100 Astartes, commanded by a 1st or 2nd Lieutenant. Each squad's role differs, fulfilling the needs of the platoon and each platoon filling the needs of the company. The first and second Platoons are commanded by the First and Second Lieutenants respectively. This larger formation allows for more respective independence, each company holding it's own naval and logistical assets allowing each to host a crusade on it's lonesome if need be. Platoons Platoons are the formation below companies, each commanded by a Lieutenant whom advises and directs troops for their captain. A standard First platoon from one of the Line Companies (1-3) harbors one Anti-Armor squad, one Heavy Support squad, four Rifle squads, two Close Combat squads, one techmarine staff squad, and the Command Staff squad. The second platoon will often harbor three Rifle squads, two Close Combat squads, one Anti-Armor squad, thirty brothers dedicated to vehicular operations, and Command Staff. The platoons often get referred to by commanders as the Line Platoon and Mechanized Platoon though each company has enough armor and air to transport itself across a battlefield. Dreadnoughts within Squads Dreadnoughts, despite being mechanized implements are recognized as brothers of their original post and thusly are folded into their squad at their original position and are often awoken to serve with their brothers in their squad. They will retain specialization on their livery, hold their original rank title and will only be exempt from this if they once were command staff. Ex-Command Dreadnoughts will be classed into the vehicular operational implement but act as great advisors to platoon and company command. Often, Dreadnought attached squads will try to maintain 10 total astartes but their tally is interpreted as "Gene-Seed harvest-able brothers under arms" and thus they are not counted toward the chapter's number so it can happen that Dreadnoughts are attached to squads of 10 brothers. Hierarchy Commissioned Officers * Master Captain The closest thing in the chapter to a "Chapter Master", this particular individual is above the First Captain and holds greatest say in the manners of the chapter along with it's method of leadership. * Captain The director of a company and Senior CO. They have their own personal fleet of two Strike Cruisers and escort frigates of varying number to deliver their company through the void. * Lieutenant The overseers of platoons, command staff squad leader/Commissioned Officer, and direct tactical advisors to the captain who may lead the entire company at his beck and call. Their direct subordinate is a Warrant Officer whom works with the command staff Sergeants. * Warrant Officer Direct subordinates to the Lieutenant, they aide and advise the Lieutenant along with holding the role of being the Platoon's Champion. They are not allowed a prefix and are a strictly leadership role with no specialization but often operate by their lonesome on light covert operations or coordinating company special operations outside of administrative duties due to their increased field freedoms but not necessarily overbearing administrative requisites not unlike a standardized Force Commander. There is often only a singular warrant officer in a platoon but sometimes two or more may occupy the command staff squad. Non-Commissioned Officers * Medical Staff Sergeant The chief Medical Official for a particular platoon, overseeing all medical needs and apothecary specialization within the platoon. They tally gene-stock and weigh percentages of purity among samples within the platoon. Both Medical Sergeants of a company may work with the Captain on overall stock purity, providing him advise and information. * Ecclesial Staff Sergeant The Chaplain implement of a command staff squad, whom reviews a platoon's spiritual needs, recruit income, training, and oversees prayer and will collaborate with their fellow man of the same rank to work with the Captain on overall Company Morale and rituals. * Magis Staff Sergeant The Librarius complement of a command staff unit, rarer to find due to the lack of latent psychic powers among the recruits of the chapter. They oversee dealings with training the psychic resilience of the initiates being folded to a certain company and provide guidance based upon their visions and tarot readings as well as working against Psionic threats to aide their brothers. They also often act in concert with the chapter's Astropaths, helping to plot routes based on known storms and anomalies. * Arming Staff Sergeant A staff aide to the Lieutenant who is a Techmarine leadership implement, they oversee the equipment and logistics of the platoon and will collaborate with their fellow man of the same rank to work with the Captain on Company logistics. * Staff Sergeant The non-specialized equal to the other Sergeants below the Lieutenant within a platoon's Command Staff and Senior NCO * First Sergeant Advisors to the Lieutenant and leaders of the first line squad of a particular platoon as a Senior NCO with minor authority over other squads. * Specialists Each brother with a specialty will have a prefix title, Techmarines will be Arming Brothers, Apothecaries as Medical Brothers, Librarians as Magis Brothers, and Chaplains as a Ecclesial Brothers. As captains, they work often as staff to the Master Captain instead of as actual heads of companies. They by default hold the authority of a Senior Brother * Sergeant Sergeants direct Squads of brothers on the field as an NCO. * Senior Brother/Senior Veteran Veteran brothers of a squad whom serve as a Sergeant's second in a Junior NCO position and operate as a Grenadier in Rifle Squads Ground Brothers * Lance Legionary Mildly distinguished brothers who have been on enough engagements to earn a portion of authority and commendations. They often work on mentoring Initiates. * Line Legionary A standard battle-brother who has proven himself and ascended from being an initiate. * Initiate A brother who has barely recieveed their augmentations and finished basic training to start service with a squad. They are immediately equipped with Power Armor after augmentation instead of serving as a scout during intermittent periods of augmentation. Beliefs The Steel Guardians are an ecclesiastical chapter and believe in the God-Emperor as opposed to any analog of the Imperial Truth. In this faith, a great deal of distinguished traditions have been created and beliefs garnered in their own culture. One of the greatest being a philosophy surrounding pride. In less glorified summary, Steel Guardian brothers are not to believe themselves as superior to citizens in any way relating to species. In the end without their armament, Space Marines are still human so they should hold themselves as such and not believe themselves so arrogantly infallible compared to a Hive-Dweller or Feudal Worlder. This is rather similar to the humble beneficence of the Salamanders to a more nascent degree, not doing civilian operations extremely commonly but still helping civilian infrastructure on regular occasions and hosting joint-training with Steel Subsector Navy, Guard, and PDF forces during peacetime. As a result of these beliefs, they only wear organisational markings, the most outward and somewhat decorative item is their left pauldron which bears their company crest heraldry. The brother does not need much in the way of personal sensibilities aside from his own distinguishing armor piecing and purity seals, he is an implement to his company and as a whole the company has earned itself distinguished heraldry for honorifics. The Steel Guardians have a multitude of cultural rituals and attitudes that extend from and perpetuate their feudal and militant tendencies, forming their unique internal society. Rituals * Trials Militant Young initiates still undergoing augmentation will regularly drill with Stormtrooper regiments that are in the Steel Subsector, as a lesson in humility and knowing the troubles of other fighters for the Imperium. The initiate is to learn his place and know that he is mortal regardless of what people may tell him, forced to run errands and work as a serf between drills and surgeries. * Temperament Of The Soul Temperament Of The Soul means many things within the chapter. Most often it is a long and contemplative ritual in which a brother resides outside of his plate in a small room with incense and candles all around and is tattooed with a pain stimulant laced ink across a certain area with rites and tenets along with holy symbolism while the brother ritually reads the very oaths he is being tattooed with, the area is prepared for tattooing with searing hot essential oils. This is the closest a Steel Guardian has to personal heraldry, each set of rites differing between brothers based on what forms of faith they contemplate most. Facial tattoos are frowned upon. The most veteran brothers can have entire sleeves of oaths and have their entire backs covered with oaths. This can also be a field activity that a squad may do out of bonding, archaic methods will be used to apply the tattoos and sometimes candles may be provided, but often the brothers will take turns reading sentences of the oaths. Each brother will have a partner applying the tattoo, trading off once finished to tattoo the other squadmate. The oath is identical and in the exact same place across each brother in the squad, marking their bond as men under arms. In a more grave text, this is also a punishment to be administered by the Ecclesial brothers of the chapter. The brother is chained in a dimly lit room to be branded and flogged while being forced to read the oaths he broke over and over again. This is a rare circumstance as usually brothers are rightly well-behaved, but instances of hubris and pride can lead to this sanction. Tactics and Companies A multitude of chapter doctrines and tactical tenets occupy the chapter's holding amid the doctrines of the Codex Astartes that they follow as well as their own experience of organisational tenets and workings. Company Structure To begin, the chapter holds a number of companies of 200 men. In their Legiones Proposal 2-6 of M39, the chapter dictated the organisational tenets of numerical limiting as null and forfeit leading to a bolstering of numbers once kept closely guarded up to approximately 2000 Astartes and counting, leading to 10 whole companies with naval elements ceded from their sector's production. Each company is a Fighting Company and no Reserve Companies exist, each is to reinforce one another as needed. 1st Veteran Company. Capt. Julius Ironchild. The 1st and most veteran company is run by chapter veteran Julius Ironchild. This company serves a role as an elite strike force and often spearheads operations called by the Master Captain. Numerous tales circulate around the hardened and courageous brethren that occupy the company. They currently have two strike cruisers and multiple escort vessels for a full landing potential and currently harbor the most Land Raider transports. Notable Campaigns Pacification and Reformation of Almangir 230-523.M38 Around roughly 200.M38, the chapter was assigned to their homeworld only to find it malignant with traitorous implements including other such around their twin star systems. As a result, they crusaded their planets and brought the system to kneel, taking some through subversion and others through bolt and chain. Although their hand was firm in taking, they gave lightness in holding; taking a hand in reforming the logistics of the area to make it a self-sufficient section of the imperium, helping to raise regiments of PDF and Guard on their local hive world and getting mining operations properly underway along with helping their local forge world meet commissions and raise a new defense fleet. The reformation lasted from 630.M38 to 725.M38 and the chapter declared the stars Mixim and Hurzin along with their planets to be their domain under the name of the Steel Sector. The Poxlund Incident 600-666.M38 After a successful bit of outward operation in the years following the reformation, a lord inquisitor Miles Johannes Poxlund of the Ordo Malleus had cast judgement upon the chapter for transgressions unknown at the time. A detachment of 70 Grey Knights accompanying a large amount of inquisitorial stormtroopers assailed the Steel Sector. The lord inquisitor even called an exterminatus upon the civilized world of Intra, combat was fierce and PDF to Astarte fought for their home but only defensively, attempting to show no direct hostility to the Inquisition. Eventually, a naval breaching was forced in light of fleet combat, a team had found Poxlund and managed to force him to voice his reasoning. Poxlund had told them of a chapter named the Marines Magnus who had directly disobeyed multiple imperial tenets and were suspected of Heresy. The Steel Guardians openly denounced the inquisitor's words, telling him of his grave misunderstanding, the team was dismissed and was forced to retreat as stormtroopers reinforced the bride of the vessel. Fighting continued until Poxlund was found planetside in a command-post during an engagement. A shock assault group confronted him again in his fortification, only to find something more sinister. Guardsmen were slaughtered in each other's cold blood, and finding a "shadow of what we had already suspected to be a hollow being". Grey Knights assailed the assault team in a quick arrival before realising Poxlund's doing, seeing the maddened inquisitor for what he was, a Daemon of Tzeentch. A hasty civil war broke out in the inquisitor's forces after succesfully evading the space marines. The Grey Knights met with the Steel Guard and apologized for their lack of scrutiny and allied with them against the corrupted inquisitor. Traitorous stormtroopers and naval elements were made to believe the Grey Knights to have turned to the falsely convicted Steel Guardians' side, the incorruptible being supposedly corrupted by a great Daemonic evil that loomed in the chapter's librarius. With a harsh naval battle, the Grey Knights and Steel Guardian Honor Shields managed to board Poxlund's vessel, bringing the traitor stormtroopers to their knees. Finding Poxlund in his true form surrounded by mad guardsmen, much to the lucid guards' horror and Astartes' chagrin. A harsh battle ensued, the ten Grey Knights present doing sufficient damage to the Daemon before managing to be cut down, the wounded and last standing brother by the name of Warrant Officer Gare raised a maul to the maniacally laughing Daemon standing over the last Grey Knight whom was bleeding out on the edge of death. With a resounding crash, the Daemon was sent screaming into the warp as his material head was violently disassembled. The Steel Guardians went on to reestablish themselves and take the Grey Knights for light celebration and commendation, much to their surprise as most chapters would hold their pride so high as to all but kick them out once a similar event would end. Captain Pierce's Crusade 800-887.M38 3rd Captain Pierce ordered his men and naval elements to crusade the Ork controlled Nyxum System neighboring the Steel Sector. The State Crusades 052-128.M39 The State Crusades began in 052.M39. In a large push against the systems neighboring the Steel Sector, the chapter crusaded against heretics and and xenos of all varieties, from treasure hunting eldar to several worlds besieged by belligerent orks along with worlds grasped by chaos. This was also a crusade of more grim work, planetary governors violating treatises around their rule, cruel despots even compared to the most ironclad hive worlds. Feeling it unacceptable, the chapter diplomatically solved some matters but were forced to covertly remove some leaders and work with bolt and blade against their PDF in helping rebels overthrow them. This caused tensions to rise, leading to further questions about certain aspects of Imperial rule and further inquisitorial investigations Notable Brothers Quotes About From Images